Small-unmanned robot vehicles (SURV) are autonomous or remotely operated ground vehicles designed to perform tasks in environments and locations that are either dangerous or inaccessible for humans to operate in, or are used for workload sharing with humans.
Given below is a very partial list of examples of environments and activities in which SURVs are employed:                Search for survivors in collapsed structures following an earthquake, a fire or an explosion,        Entry into highly radioactive contaminated areas,        Assistance to law enforcement agencies in surveillance and control of violent demonstrations, unlawful gatherings and hostage situations,        Assistance to law enforcement agencies entering unknown or potentially dangerous or hostile environments,        Remote identification and neutralizing of bombs and dealing with suspicious objects and threats of terrorist activities,        Exploration of extraterrestrial objects and territories such as the moon and Mars surveillance,        Remote active monitoring of narrow pipes, tunnels and trenches.        
In most activities of a SURV the maneuverability of the vehicle on a rough or difficult terrain is of crucial importance. To increase the utility of SURVs over a broad spectrum of operational conditions various locomotion systems have been designed. These designs include, inter-alia:
Caterpillar tracks (hereinafter referred to as—tracks or track) in various configurations that enable good maneuverability on soft soil but are less efficient on hard flat surfaces,
Wheels in various configurations that are efficient on hard and relatively flat surfaces and facilitate higher speeds on hard uncluttered surfaces but that are inefficient on loose and slippery ground conditions,
Locomotion systems that can change from track configuration to wheel configuration and vice versa thus providing the advantage of both locomotion systems.
A detailed description of various SURV locomotion systems itemizing their advantages and disadvantages is given by Paul J. Lewis et al. in their article: “Chaos”, an intelligent ultra-mobile small unmanned ground vehicle (SUGV): Combining the mobility of wheels, tracks and legs. The information is published on the Internet website: http://www.cs.usu.edu/˜flann/chaos.pdf.
Since by definition SURVs are relatively small, regardless of the locomotion system employed they are limited in the size of obstacles they can overcome. This limitation is manifested by the relatively small gaps SURV can bridge and over-pass, the size of step they can mount and the steepness and inclinations they can climb in their advance-path.
Various mechanisms are employed to increase the ability of SURVs to overcome obstacles. An example of such a mechanism is the use of a track system provided with a frontal section presenting upward inclination that improves the SURV's attack-angle when confronting an obstacle, as seen in the design of the PackBot Explorer SURV, produced by the iRobot Corporation (website: http://www.irobot.com). Another example is the turning of rigid horizontal track-beams in a rotation motion, imitating wheels. The frontal tracks in this motion hold on to an obstacle in front of the SURV (such as stairs) and climb onto it. In yet another example of a mechanism to increase the ability to overcome difficult obstacles, the tracks of the SURV are converted to vertical “legs”, enabling stepping over the obstruction. Paul J. Lewis et al., previously quoted, described an elaboration of the SURV turning track-beam systems and walking-legs mechanisms.
Various mechanisms are employed to overcome obstacles and improve the maneuverability of SURVs but the relatively small dimensions of the vehicles restrict the maneuverability in many environments and conditions. In addition, in many cases the employed locomotion mechanisms are difficult to operate autonomously, or to operate effectively by remote control.
When in use SURVs act as a platform for carrying specific equipment required for the designated task at hand. The effective operation depends in many cases on the ability to maneuver flexibly with the equipment. Examples include the ability to turn a video camera at various desired angles of photography or the use of a remote-controlled garbing-arm extended from the SURV, for picking up items adjacent the vehicle.
To increase the flexibility and operation span of a SURV, arms of various configurations have been developed and installed.
Examples of arm configurations are given in the description of three commonly used SURV: Vanguard MKII-T, made by Allen-Vanguard (web site: http://www.allen-vanguard.com/home/), by the Foster-Miller Talon III-B (web site: http://www.foster-miller.com/) and by the Mesa Matilda Block II (web site: http://www.mesa-robotics.com/matilda.html).
The arms in existing SURVs are designed so as to enable the flexible use of carried on equipment and not to extend the maneuverability of the SURVs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide SURVs with an extended arm or arms in order to increase the maneuverability of the vehicles.